The Host

The Host

By Stephenie Meyer

Little, Brown and Company, 2008. 619 pages. Science Fiction.

ISBN: 9780316068048

Reading/Interest Level: Ages 13+

Curriculum ties: Conservation, team building, self-sufficiency

Booktalk Ideas: What would you do to survive?: Talk about how Melanie went to extreme lengths to not let her body be taken over. Or, When aliens invade!: Talk about why the aliens wanted to come to earth, and how they think they’ve changed the world. Then briefly explain the human resistance.

Challenge Issues: Violence

Challenge Response: First Defense File

Reader’s Annotation:

The invasion was so subtle that Earth was already taken over before humans even realized what was happening. When Wanderer, one of the parasitic aliens who has taken over Earth, meets a rebel group of humans, she realizes that perhaps humans are more complicated than she originally believed.

Plot Summary:

A parasitic alien species called Souls have deemed humans too violent and undeserving of Earth to stay in control of the planet. They come to earth and start implanting themselves into humans, making the world a completely peaceful and trustworthy place.

Melanie Stryder, still human, is now in the minority and when the Seekers come for her, she tries to commit suicide. However, due to the Souls advanced medicine, she is healed. Wanderer is a Soul who has lived many lives and was ready for the new experiences of Earth. When she wakes up, now implanted in Melanie’s body, the Seeker’s ask her to access Melanie’s memories and tell them where the rest of the human resistance is. Wanderer wants to comply, but finds that the memories are blocked. Melanie, somehow not suppressed like she should be, is not giving up her fight. She must keep her family safe.

Fighting with Melanie becomes more and more difficult for Wanderer and as they’re driving through the desert, Melanie convinces Wanderer to follow landmarks her Uncle Jeb told her about, hoping to find her family that Wanderer has now also come to love through Melanie’s memories.

When Melanie is finally reunited with her family, tensions run high because the alien, Wanderer, is not welcome, but cannot be separated from Melanie.

Critical Evaluation:

The story is character-driven, and the sympathetic and realistic characters are really what makes this story work. Without their clear motives and personalities, everything would fall apart.

For example, Melanie’s main goal throughout the novel is to get her and her brother (later also Jared) safely to the rest of their family. “Safely” meaning avoiding the aliens and getting captured. So, when Melanie is out trying to meet someone and she realizes she’s been discovered by Seekers, she throws herself down an elevator shaft to commit suicide rather than her body be taken and her memories used to find Jared and Jamie. Even when that doesn’t work out, Melanie fights Wanderer and strives to keep her memories hidden so that her family will remain safe.

Jared’s main goal is to protect those he loves. This is obvious by how he protects Melanie and Jamie after meeting them and being relieved to find other humans, how he cared for Jamie after Melanie was captured, and how he does whatever is necessary to protect those living in Jeb’s caves. He’s willing to raid local stores and capture aliens for experimentation so that his community/family can survive and be safe.

With many serious and hardened characters, Meyer also throws in Uncle Jeb who, while being realistic and vigilant, is also one of the most kind, welcoming, and humorous characters. He is often the voice of reason in the community and holds the most power since they’re living in his cave system, and he’s the only one that carries a gun. Uncle Jeb is the main facilitator of getting Wanda integrated into the cave community. He shows he truly cares about her by gradually giving her more freedom (where she sleeps, bathes, eats, works) that also puts her in more and more contact with community members. By asking Wanda about herself and getting her to talk about her former lives, Jeb shows the rest of the community that Wanda is not a creature to be feared. She is harmless, and his insight, even though he was always a tad paranoid (having quipped the cave system before aliens ever landed, just in case) is clearer than the rest of the characters.

About the Author:

Stephenie Meyer graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor's degree in English. She lives with her husband and three young sons in Phoenix, Arizona.

Stephenie Meyer's life changed dramatically on June 2, 2003. The stay-at-home mother of three young sons woke up from a dream featuring seemingly real characters that she could not get out of her head.
“Though I had a million things to do, I stayed in bed, thinking about the dream. Unwillingly, I eventually got up and did the immediate necessities, and then put everything that I possibly could on the back burner and sat down at the computer to write—something I hadn't done in so long that I wondered why I was bothering.” That’s when she started her debut novel, Twilight, the first of a four book series. Before the final Twilight book was published, Stephenie also produced The Host, her first science fiction novel for adults.
-from author’s website-

Justification of Selection:

Since the Twilight books were so popular with young adults, having The Host is also a good fit because it can serve as a bridge to introduce teens to the science fiction genre. It’s a powerful story about what it means to be human, and has received favorable reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal.